Life history changes associated with over 400 generations of artificial selection on body size in Drosophila

Body size is a trait that shapes many aspects of a species’ development and evolution. Larger body size is often beneficial in animals, but it can also be associated with life history costs in natural systems. Similarly, miniaturization, the evolution of extremely small adult body size, is found in every major animal group, yet carries its own life history trade-offs. Given that these effects can depend on an animal’s environment and life stage and have mainly been studied in species that are already specialized for their size, the life history changes associated with evolutionary shifts in body size warrant additional investigation. Here, we used Drosophila melanogaster populations that had undergone over 400 generations of artificial selection on body size to investigate the changes in life history traits associated with the evolution of extremely large and extremely small body sizes. Populations selected for small body size experienced strong trade-offs in multiple life history trait..., , , # Data from: Life history changes associated with over 400 generations of artificial selection on body size in Drosophila

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.15dv41p4v](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.15dv41p4v)

## Description of the data and file structure

**BodySizes.csv**
*Male and female body size data for the Body Size experiment. Data are displayed in Figure 1.*
“Block” = the experimental block
“Treatment” = the artificial selection treatment (L, S, C, or LHm)
“Lineage” = the artificial selection lineage (e.g., L1, L2, S1, etc.)
“SieveHoleDiameter” = sieve hole diameter (in 𝜇m) of the sieves used for size sorting
“NumberMales” = the total number of males found within each sieve after size sorting
“NumberFemales” = the total number of females found within each sieve after size sorting

**Fecundity_Lin.csv**
*Fecundity data for the lineage comparisons (includes LHm). Data are displayed in Figure 2b.*
“Lineage” = the artificial selection lineage (e.g., L1, L2, S1, etc.)
“Treatment” = the...